With the recent news that the ICFA Preview Show and the Casual Market will be combined into one event in 2022, Casual News Now reached out to industry members to get their opinion on the change and how it might affect the industry.
Grant Henegan, owner of The Fire House Casual Living Store, says he thinks the move is a good idea given the lengthy supply chain and the fact that the September show would be too late, especially for those who use container programs.”
“I believe it will work well for 2022, but we should revert to the preseason show and the September show in 2023,” he says.”
Leisa McCollister, OW Lee’s VP of marketing, agrees with Henegan about the supply delays in our industry and says that coupled with the move to Atlanta, having one market this year is best for both retailers and manufacturers.
“Retailers making buying decisions in September will most likely be too late for the spring season in many instances this year,” she says. “I think having one show will encourage retailers to buy earlier, which will benefit them. It’s too early to tell if one market is a practical option. January is too late to be a viable market for outdoor specialty retailers, and I expect some seasonality to return to the market once conditions settle down. I do think it makes sense to align our July Market with Atlanta’s Gift Show.”
While Eli Hymer of Gasper Home and Garden, an ICFA board member, says the organization “didn’t really have any other choice” but to change the dates, he says the one market situation makes things more difficult for his store.
“I used to use July premarket as my guide, to have my containers done,” Hymer says. “And a lot of the stuff was done prior to the September market. So when I came in September, I would actually come to fill in the holes, and maybe do the lower floors. I find myself now going to have to order my containers in June for next year in order to beat the rush for July, which is normally beating the rush for September.”
In fact, Hymer says he placed an order in 2021 that still hasn’t come in yet. “And I thought I was gonna have it last year,” he says. “So the normalcy of this industry is no longer around—we’re all rolling the dice and doing the best that we can to survive this year.”
At the recent educational conference, Hymer says someone asked him if he thinks he’s doing the right thing.
“I said, ‘ask me a year from now and I’ll tell you then,’’ he says.”These are all unchartered waters for every one of us.”
Mark Osbourne, director of residential sales at Mamagreen, says that while it might not seem this way on the surface, in many ways having one market simplifies the process for the dealer.
“With so many forums showcasing product throughout the year, and with everyone experiencing such robust business now, it helps them narrow the process of making important decisions for the upcoming year,” he says.
Brad Schweig, VP of operation at Sunnyland Outdoor Living, didn’t go to Casual Market in September 2021 because he says he didn’t see a reason to.
“We got everything done in July. The only reason to go in September is to go see a few temporaries, socialize and go to the patio prom. All of our decisions were made by September.”
He says even though the market change comes mostly because exhibitors had to be out of theMART by Oct. 1, he thinks makes sense not to have two markets this year. He also said this one-market situation might be the case until something changes.
“I don’t know why anybody would go back to the September market,” he explains. “We’ve been sales training recently and for some of these vendors, July is going be too late. You never know when things might change—maybe shipping is going to catch up and maybe labor will get better—but I think it’s going take probably a recession to equalize things out, unfortunately.”
So what is a retailer to do if they can’t get product for the next year?
Some retailers pick up new vendors, but as Schweig mentions, there are a lot of categories and certain looks that you can’t find made in the U.S.
“It’s very difficult,” Schweig says. “Basically you’re driving blindly. You can’t stop ordering, otherwise, you won’t have product whenever it gets here. But we’re having to guess what we’re going to need a year from now. And we haven’t even gone through the season yet.”
With the market moving to Atlanta in 2023, there will be more opportunities to show and buy product, and Schweig says he wonders if there are going to be mini markets during all of the other major shows that take place at AmericasMart.
“I heard somewhere that they’re going to line this market up with the July show they usually do,” he says. “Are we going to go to a January and July schedule and is there a reason to ever go back to September? I think everything will have to be re-evaluated once the market moves to Atlanta because it’s going to be different. You’re going to a market center. Chicago wasn’t really a market center like the ones in High Point or Atlanta.”
